The Red-Horned Ghost lingered on the other side of the netherworld passage, looking around.
"How strange! Such a huge passage-and not a single guard? Have they already gone to the human world?"
The netherworld was desolate and scarce in resources. Ghosts with great abilities either lived at ease in Northern Yin Fengdu or tried every means to reach the world of the living.
The Red-Horned Ghost reckoned he might have happened upon a passage to the human world torn open by some great ghost.
So he slipped inside, sneaking off to visit the legendary human world himself.
Soon, vast currents of yin qi wrapped around him and carried him through the barrier into the human world.
At first, he cautiously concealed himself with ghost qi. But after sensing his surroundings carefully, his expression grew increasingly strange.
"Huh? I can't feel it? Is this-really the world of the living?"
Cold, gloomy ghost qi drifted all around him. He could not sense any of the legendary sunlight or purple qi.
There was also a peculiar aroma of meat...
Looking closely, he saw pieces of cooked, fragrant meat scattered over the ground.
Unable to help himself, he pounced, grabbed a piece, and began gnawing on it.
"It-it's actually 'ghost-path Spirit Cuisine'? That mighty one actually threw something like this away? What a waste! This is good stuff!"
Ghosts did indeed feed on incense offerings from the human world, but they could also eat ingredients cooked using netherworld substances-and such ingredients greatly benefited their ghostly bodies. There simply were not many edible things in the Netherworld Ghost Domain, and with ghosts scattered sparsely across its vast expanses, finding a ghost chef skilled enough to prepare them was no certainty.
After finishing one piece, he picked up another and feasted...
Immersed in the food, the Red-Horned Ghost failed to notice the wisps of wondrous Dao resonance gradually purifying and cleansing his turbid ghostly body.
A quarter of an hour later, the Red-Horned Ghost finished the meat around him and continued forward.
After barely two steps, he spotted two more pieces scattered on the ground and went over to gnaw on them again.
He ate as he walked, until waves of heat washed over him and startled him out of his entranced state.
Looking up, he saw steaming oil cauldrons scattered about. Flames took the shapes of dragons and snakes, darting around the cauldrons, while rich aromas flowed from them like golden clouds.
That overwhelmingly rich fragrance nearly smothered the One-Horned Ghost to death.
"Is-is all of this ghost food?"
His voice trembled a little.
Had he-had he stumbled into some mighty figure's kitchen?
He looked up at the sky, then around him. There was still none of the legendary human scenery-no green mountains, clear waters, red sun, or white clouds.
Wasn't this clearly still the netherworld?
"Where did this little ghost come from!"
Suddenly, an icy gaze descended.
Boom!
In that instant, the Red-Horned Ghost felt a furious killing intent. That gaze nearly froze his ghostly body solid.
"You-are stealing my food?"
"I won't dare do it again!" The Red-Horned Ghost hurriedly raised his hands, holding a wolf leg high. "My lord, I succumbed to my appetite! Please spare my life!"
That icy gaze vaguely reminded the Red-Horned Ghost of the Ghost Kings he had once encountered. Those Ghost Kings who had cultivated Ālaya Consciousness were beings comparable to True Persons in the living world.
"Where did you come from? Are you a spy sent by some enemy of mine?"
"No, no!" The Red-Horned Ghost hastily explained, "I found a passage and thought I could sneak into the human world. I never expected... to trespass upon your esteemed domain, my lord..."
"Hmm... this is indeed the human world. That old passage must have sprung another leak... Get back there and seal the passage from the other side. Don't let any more stray cats and dogs wander in."
A fierce wind swept past, flinging the Red-Horned Ghost to the passage entrance.
He scrambled back into the netherworld, not daring to linger for an instant.
Then five streaks of spiritual light caught up with him, turning into five pots of fragrant meat stew before him, their aroma overwhelming.
"This-" The Red-Horned Ghost did not dare take them, craning his neck to look toward the other end of the passage.
Suddenly, that cold voice sounded beside his ear. "Seal the passage. This is your reward-lest those old fellows hear of this someday and say I have no consideration for my juniors."
"Thank you, Senior! Thank you, Senior!" The Red-Horned Ghost thanked him profusely, then worked his magic to repair the passage.
"It worked!"
Before the "Oil Cauldron Hell," Ao Ding watched the passage shrink little by little. He dispelled the Sound-Transforming Spell and let out a long breath.
"I finally bluffed my way through."
Once the Red-Horned Ghost had sealed the other side, Ao Ding activated the Azure Jade Golden Dragon Banner as well, turning all his True Heaven Golden Gang into a slender flood dragon that charged toward the passage. On this side, it became an enormous coiled-dragon stone, sealing off the leaking ghost qi.
"The passage was easy. The food is the difficult part."
Gazing up at the hundreds of thousands of great cauldrons piled before him, and the fragrant meat cooked from a million corpses, Ao Ding truly felt something he could not quite put into words.
Still-it smelled pretty good.
Rubbing his belly, Ao Ding stuffed another Golden Bud into his mouth.
The dry, astringent Golden Bud entered his mouth and dissolved into spiritual qi that nourished his entire body, temporarily freeing him from hunger and thirst.
"The meat stew is essentially the spiritual qi left after refining a million wolf ghosts with fire. Eating this stuff is no different from eating Golden Buds, and it might even interfere with my absorbing the buds to abstain from grain and refine immortal qi. I'll purify it slowly for now. I have three years, anyway. At worst, I can make it into offerings for Feeding the Hungry Ghosts later, just as I did for the Red-Horned Ghost."
Feeding the Hungry Ghosts was a method immortals and buddhas used to deliver ghosts.
Spells were cast upon ingredients so that ghosts and monsters who ate them could receive purification and release.
Ao Ding had just cast such spells on the Red-Horned Ghost's food. In the future, the Red-Horned Ghost had a chance of shedding his turbid form, attaining a pure spiritual ghost body, and even reentering reincarnation.
Feeling that he had done a good deed, Ao Ding was in a fine mood as he returned to the "Oil Cauldron Hell" to ponder things slowly.
He had to find somewhere to put the hundreds of thousands of oil cauldrons. If they remained here for long, other ghosts and monsters would appear in the future, and they might even draw cultivators who came to capture ghosts and defend the Dao.
Walking up to the nearest oil cauldron, Ao Ding raised a hand and circulated his True Heaven Golden Gang.
Golden Gang qi floated toward the oil cauldron, refining and burning the fragrant meat within bit by bit.
Slowly, wisps of yin qi were burned out of the meat.
Seemingly dissatisfied with the slow pace, Ao Ding drew out the Xuanjia Spirit Staff and gently tapped the oil cauldron.
With the Dharma Artifact's support, the golden Gang refined it several times faster.
After a little under an hour, the spiritual power of the entire pot of meat had condensed into a pitch-black crystal pearl the size of a thumb. Because Ao Ding's technique was not up to par, its surface was uneven and extremely ugly.
But Ao Ding still breathed a sigh of relief.
There was a way!
This method worked!
Picking up the "Netherworld Wolf-Soul Pearl," Ao Ding examined it with the Primordial Truth Mirror.
"Judging by its spiritual qi, it should count as a natural spiritual treasure, right? A Spirit-Nurturing-grade spiritual treasure? It should probably sell for a few dozen pattra leaves later."
Looked at that way-didn't hundreds of thousands of cauldrons mean hundreds of thousands of spiritual treasures?
If he refined all of them...
He ought to make a fortune, right?
But it felt so exhausting-
Looking at the hundreds of thousands of cauldrons before him, Ao Ding gave a long sigh.
"Never mind. I have three years. I'll take it slowly."
He strolled back to the Immortal Tomb, sat in meditation, and chanted scriptures of deliverance.
Although no one was watching and Sun Chen himself had left no instructions, Ao Ding intended to perform a full seven sevens-forty-nine days-of rites for him, on account of their acquaintance.
Ao Ding had not originally known the rituals involved.
But the Daoist methods and spells Sun Chen had left him happened to contain relevant materials from the Pure Tenuity Sect, including scriptures that mentioned "Feeding the Hungry Ghosts."
That night.
While Ao Ding kept vigil and chanted scriptures, a ghostly breeze suddenly blew past, lulling him into a hazy sleep.
In his dream, white mist stretched boundlessly, and an old True Person stood smiling before him.
Sun Chen looked just as he had in life. Smiling, he said, "I have undergone Liberation by Violence and shall be reincarnated on Cangluan Continent. When the time comes, you may bring the Qianling Mountain-Calming Pearl to guide me. Visit places of poverty and lowly station often. In my next life, I shall be born into a debased caste-remember, once you have guided me, do not take me to the Pure Tenuity Sect."
With that, the Daoist took his hand and carefully instructed him, "Your natural gifts are exceptional. I have no concerns about your cultivation of Dao attainment, realms, magical power, or vital essence-only your character requires repeated tempering. In the future, you may conceal your tracks with concealment talismans and walk among mortals, using the dust of the mortal world to temper your mind."
Tempering the mind and will was a required discipline for cultivators.
What worried Old Daoist Sun most was that Ao Ding might focus solely on magical power and Dao attainment in the future, neglecting to temper his character.
For a genius, arrogance and overbearing pride were the greatest dangers.
Sun Chen had already experienced this deeply in the past.
"Take good care of yourself-"
With that, the old Daoist in the dream dissolved into white smoke, and Ao Ding slowly woke.
Looking at the scripture banners drifting around him, Ao Ding murmured, "Senior reincarnated successfully? That's good-"
As Sun Chen's rebirth concluded, the power of a contract spell in the Unseen unraveled on its own.
He looked again at the wolf-head marking on his palm. It seemed to have grown a little brighter.
"No matter. I'll argue things out with the Wolf Court later-why should I fear them now?"
Calculating the time, he found it was already the hour of the dragon.
Yet when Ao Ding looked up at the sky-
Wolf howls that had yet to fade could still faintly be heard in the gloomy, clouded sky.
"Troublesome-this hellish ghost domain is making it hard for even sunlight to reach the ground."
Looking down the mountain, he saw that the Oil Cauldron Hell was still endlessly stewing its fragrant meat.
"Come to think of it, won't the pots scorch if they keep cooking like this?"
Ao Ding was thoroughly puzzled.
Silently, he took out the Azure Jade Golden Dragon Banner and swept it fiercely through the air, draining his magical power once again.
Boom-
A golden dragon soared into the sky, flying ceaselessly around the outside of the "Oil Cauldron Hell."
Dazzling golden light circulated around the Oil Cauldron Hell, forming layer upon layer of barriers that screened off the ghost qi surging out of Qianling Mountain.
Once he had finished, Ao Ding let out a breath.
Feeling the hazy sunlight fall upon him, he settled for it. "This will do for now. I'll make do and consider it again once the rites are finished."
Over the next forty-odd days, Ao Ding meditated and chanted scriptures daily. In between presiding over the rites, he used the Primordial Truth Mirror to deduce cultivation methods.
Perhaps because of this "Hell Feast," Ao Ding's attainments in Northern Yin cultivation methods advanced a thousand miles a day.
Only after the rites ended did Ao Ding return to the stone house and reconsider his future cultivation.
"The Golden Light Method is my stepping stone to refining qi, cultivating toward immortality with steady, solid progress, and entering an immortal sect in the future. But now, cultivating the Golden Light Method requires no breathing exercises. I only need to recite the Great Golden Light Spell each day."
At present, this cultivation method was already on track. He only needed to chant the spell slowly each day.
"But apart from this method for increasing magical power, the Northern Yin Dharma Gate targets the soul. It would be quite good for supporting spirit refinement."
Back when he was in the Seven Spirits Sect, Ao Ding had already cultivated the Northern Yin Netherworld Hell Method to the Qi-Seeding Connection Realm. Later, he cultivated the Golden Light Method and entered the Upper Realm, the Ultimate Realm, and finally his current Mystic Gang Thoroughfare Realm. Although the Netherworld Hell Method had improved along with it, it had not broken through to the Mysterious Gang level.
Now, however, Ao Ding vaguely had a premonition that cultivating the Hell Method would bring him a great fortuitous opportunity.
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